<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Songs of the Ice by Ashesintheair</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24751996">Songs of the Ice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashesintheair/pseuds/Ashesintheair'>Ashesintheair</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble, Gen, Mermaids, Short One Shot, atypical mermaids</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:15:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>258</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24751996</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashesintheair/pseuds/Ashesintheair</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A mermaid who lives in icy waters and is unlikely to ever have a Disney song and dance number. Short one shot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Songs of the Ice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nelna is not a pretty, floaty, coral seas mermaid. She lives in the icy ink-black waters of the arctic. She wouldn’t recognise her southern cousins and would most likely kill them on sight. The layer of fat beneath her skin that keeps her alive does not give her the svelte form of the mermaids of warmer seas, but her life allows for little that isn’t corded muscle.</p>
<p>She carries a spear, she hunts in a pack. Sometimes her prey sees her coming, but it makes little difference. Her teeth are sharp and made for eating meat.</p>
<p>The carcasses of thorny starfish catch up her hair. Her back is dark, mottled like the seals - all the better to hide from anything looking down into the ocean. Her stomach is pale - all the better to hide from anything looking up towards the sky.</p>
<p>She does not sing. There is no music but whale-song in the caves of ice. Anything that does not directly contribute to survival is frivolous and to be shunned. Every movement wastes energy and energy is the most precious resource of her world. Every move made in anything other than the pursuit of more energy is wasteful. This is how her pack survives. This is how she was taught, without words.</p>
<p>She does not sing, but she sees the grey ships peopled with figures wrapped in a colour so bright that it hurts her eyes. She hears the tinny music from their radios. She does not sing, but she wonders what it would be like to try.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>